Balancing Fire and Water
by Lady Belegwen Lightningblade
Summary: Ranma&Akane and some other pairings, not necessarily the usual ones. The story begins when Akane inherits some money and flies away to Ireland.


Ranma 1/2: Balancing Fire and Water

First Prologue: Rain

I used to really like the rain, when I was a little kid. For one thing, it'd mean that Pop would stop and look for a cheap hotel or something, instead of pitching a tent on a mostly flat patch of rocky ground. When it'd rain, I'd actually get a roof over my head. I'd sit by the window and look out at all the rain pourin' down, and for once the weather'd be out there and I'd be inside where it was warm and dry, and I'd just sit there, and not have to travel or do anything. And there might be lightning and thunder. I'd sleep on an actual mattress between sheets, and I'd hear the rain. It was a peaceful sound.

Rain meant peace. No training, no stealing, just quiet and rain and peace.

But after Jusenkyo the rain ceased to be my friend. It turned me into something I wasn't, and it meant that all the chaos never really stopped. I have to fight on in spite of the rain now, and there is no quiet hotel room where I'm warm and dry and safe for just one night. Since Jusenkyo, it all changed, and now there's never any peace.

Second Prologue: Inferno

I try sometimes to look back to those hours in which I was dying. I know, because I have been told it, that I saved his life several times during those hours. But all I remember of them was fire and burning. What's funny is that it didn't hurt like real fire. It didn't burn _me_; it just burned. Even though it was the hottest thing in the world and it was killing me, it didn't hurt. It was as if I was already fire inside and so fire outside of my little doll body couldn't hurt me.

Sometimes I dream about it, and when I wake up I think it might really be like that. It might really be that I'm fire inside, and that no matter what happens I'll burn someone, because there's an inferno inside of me that's burning out of control. I try to fight it sometimes, but it never seems to last. I always explode again.

Maybe that's why I'm always hitting him. Because I can't help it. Because deep down inside, I'm just fire and I have to find something to burn.

Chapter One: A Mother's Legacy

Breaking bricks can be a very tiring hobby. She'd shattered thirty of them that afternoon, and her arms, hands, and shoulders were a bit sore. The hot water of the bath was beginning to relieve the tension, but Akane Tendo still felt exhausted. She sighed quietly and sank deeper into the water. "Ranma, I hate you," she whispered. "I hate you. I hate you. I hate you."

Sometimes she was no longer sure if she really meant the words, or just said them out of habit. Today, she thought she had some justification. First, he had gotten her in trouble with one of the teachers, better not to say how that had happened, but Shampoo had been heavily involved. Then, while she stayed after class with the teacher, who wanted to know what had happened to Akane's homework (It had been caught in one of the jerk's ki attacks in the middle of a battle with Ryoga . . . who unlike Ranma, had at least apologized!), he had vanished. When she went to look for him, she had found him (predictably) at Ucchan's devouring his third plate!

What had her father been thinking of to engage her to him! Sure, he was nice sometimes . . . and yes, he had saved her life several times . . . and maybe, he might qualify as a friend, but still . . . he was so . . . impossible!

Akane muttered her angry mantra again and splashed water onto her face to wash away the tears that had formed in her eyes. Couldn't he see that it hurt her when he did these things?

When she had wiped the water from her eyes, she found herself staring at an open doorway. And Ranma standing in it!

"Ranma, you jerk!" Akane screamed, as she rose from the bath to punch him through a wall. How dare he walk in on her like that! Again! "Ahhh! You jer-" She stopped mid-scream to cough on the cloud of dust that had resulted from the broken wall. She tried to scream again, but this time was distracted by the that had fallen with the dust by her feet. She lifted it gingerly. "Hmm," she said in a more normal tone of voice, "what's this?"

It was an envelope of yellowed paper. Akane turned it over thoughtfully and found the writing on the reverse. It read: "The Last Will and Testament of Kimiko Tendo."

Ranma pulled himself upright. "Hey, Akane, you alright? Why aren't you still screaming or nothing?"

Akane did not seem to notice him. She did not even seem to notice the fact that she was still completely undressed. She stared at the envelope a moment longer then began to pull herself together. "Nabiki! Dad! Kasumi! Come here quick! I've found Mom's will!"

A quarter of an hour later, the Tendo and Saotome households sat around the table, all wearing solemn expressions. Akane now also wore a robe and a faint blush. Ranma wore several bandages.

"Geeze," he said, "you know, Akane, it's not my fault you decided to wander around the house in nothing but your skin."

"Shut up, pervert," she said half-heartedly, before turning to Nabiki. "So what's it say?"

"Hmm?" Nabiki looked up from the piece of paper. "Well, there's a letter and a few savings bonds. They've all reached maturity, too. Here, Kasumi, there's one for you." Nabiki handed a slip of paper to her elder sister. "In Mom's will it says, 'Dearest Kasumi, with my gift build for yourself, a house for your dreams.'"

Kasumi stared at the slip of paper. "But, Nabiki . . . this is fifteen million yen."

"Huh?" Nabiki didn't look surprised. "Oh, didn't you know, sis? Mom's family was pretty wealthy. How do you think she managed to buy Dad the dojo?"

"Well, then why-?"

It was Soun who interrupted his daughter. "Kasumi, your mother and I did not want our daughters to grow up as unstable as the children of wealthy people often do."

Ranma nodded. "You mean you didn't want them to end up crazies like the Kunous."

"Exactly, Ranma." Soun looked back at Nabiki. "What else did your mother say, Nabiki?"

Nabiki drew out another of the thin slips of paper and placed in on the table before her, then read from the letter. Her voice was surprisingly choked with emotion. "'Cleverest daughter, my own Nabiki, use well, my gift as you choose.'" Nabiki stared at the paper in silence, then returned to reading the will. She handed a final thin slip of paper to Akane. "'I give you the gold, Akane, so you must go, and find the rainbow.' Those are all of the savings bonds, but there's two more messages. The first is for you, Daddy."

Soun burst into tears. "Your mother loved me so much! To send me words from beyond the grave!"

Kasumi patted her father's back. "There, there, father. Don't you want to hear what she said?"

He nodded jerkily.

"Right." Nabiki again read aloud. "'To my true husband, you never wanted riches, so I leave my love.' That's all, Daddy." Finally, Nabiki cleared her throat. "And, here's the last of it. 'Live happily, all, remember that I loved you, do not forget me.'"

Akane sat on her bed, staring numbly at the savings bond. "End of the rainbow," she murmured to herself. She half-smiled.

Her musings were interrupted by a pounding on the door.

"Come in."

The door cracked open slightly. "Um, Akane?"

Akane turned to face Ranma. "What do you want, Ranma?"

"I wanted to say I was sorry for walking in on you in the bath!" he all but shouted. "You didn't have to hit me, you know. It wouldn't have happened if you'd remembered to put the sign up!"

Akane shrugged, not feeling like rising to the bait. Her memories of her mother were still too close to the forefront of her mind. "You're forgiven."

Ranma looked shocked. "That's all?"

"Did you want me to punt you into the fish pond again?" she inquired.

"No!"

Akane laughed in spite of herself. "Well, then get out before you start to irritate me."

Ranma was about to follow the instruction before he turned back to face her. "What does "find the rainbow" mean, anyway?"

At first, Akane did not answer, but finally she smiled in such a way that the whole room seemed to light up. It wasn't a cute smile though, because it had nothing to do with him. "Mom used to read me stories. She read me fairy tales and legends from all over the world. One of my favorites was about leprechauns in Ireland. The story was that they were very wealthy and kept their gold at the end of the rainbow. I always said I would go to the end of the rainbow and find the gold."

Ranma was clearly puzzled. "So . . . what are you going to do with the money?"

"I don't know," she answered matter-of-factly. "Maybe I'll go far away where nosey fianceés can't find me."

He sniffed. "Good. Then you won't hit me anymore."

"Well, I'll be happier. Then I won't have to hear you call me an uncute tomboy anymore," she snapped.

"I only say it cause it's true."

This time Akane **did** rise to the bait and kick him out of her room, down the hallway, and into a wall. "I can't wait to leave!"

A few moments after Ranma's departure, Akane had calmed down enough to seriously consider the matter. What had her mother meant by "find the rainbow"? She flipped the light back on, and scanned her bookshelf, eventually removing a worn paperback. It opened readily to the same page as always. She stared down at the illustration. The art, she knew now was poor, but the image had been with her since childhood: the rainbow, the little man, the gold piled upon the ground as brightly as flowers, and the two children filling their hands with it.

"I'll do it," she said to herself at last. After all, vacation was getting close, she had the money, and the change would be just the thing for her. She could practice her English while she was there and get away from all the chaos. She was horribly tired of the chaos.


End file.
